RUSH: So it looks like we pick up eight seats in the Senate now with Alaska, and it could still be more, but it won’t be less. The Republicans are going to have the greatest number of members in the House of Representatives since 1946, as they pick up net 10. Every member of Congress from Arkansas is a Republican. This sweep, this wave, this landslide was thorough, top to bottom, dramatic. It was heart stopping, and it was genuinely catastrophic for the Democrat Party.

Now, if you’re just tuning in and you missed the opening segments of the program today, fear not. I’m not going to repeat them. But we already have them up and transcribed, the audio is available, too, at RushLimbaugh.com. It’s even been linked to by Matt Drudge. It’s on the front page of the Drudge Report.

And, you know, I’m unlike you. I have never had the thrill of listening to this program like you do. And the reason for that is that I’m hosting it, and I don’t listen to myself after the fact. I’ve never liked it. I’ve never watched myself on TV. I hated it. I was never satisfied. I don’t listen to myself on tape on the radio. So I don’t hear myself like you do. I have missed that thrill.

But I do read my own transcripts, and this one I heartily recommend if you missed the first hour of the program. Again, what happened was a thorough slap down, smack down, if you will, a thorough and total rejection of liberal Democrat — and not just policies. This was a smack down of liberal Democrat governance. And it was everywhere. It knew no demographic limitations, geographic limitations, gender limitations.

We’ve got Tim Scott in South Carolina who is the first black elected to the Senate since Reconstruction. He was serving out an appointed term, and he was elected for the first time. He’s a Republican in South Carolina and he was elected by Republicans and Democrats, thereby nuking one of the cliched talking points that the Democrats have popularized about Republicans: racist, sexist,bigot, homophobe, you name it.

There were Republican governors, women, reelected in droves last night. The War on Women meme was shot through the heart in Colorado and all over the country, although it won’t go away, by the way. I disagree, if you’ve heard analysts on TV say that — and Dr. Krauthammer said this, and don’t misunderstand. I’m not trying to be disrespectful here. I just don’t think the Democrats give things up. It’s not the end of the War on Women.
I mean, they’re still claiming Republicans want to eliminate Social Security for old people. They’re still claiming that Republicans want to kick old people out of their houses.

They are grabbing 50-year-old pages out of their playbook in this campaign. So they’re not gonna give up on the War on Women. They’re gonna keep trying it. That’s all they’ve got. They cannot talk about their policies. Nobody wants their policies.

If Barack Obama had been honest about his policies, he would never have been elected in the first place and we wouldn’t be here. Liberal Democrats have to constantly mask who they are and what they believe in, couch themselves in terms that are presentable and acceptable. The American people keep falling for it because of branding and the media and the notion of compassion and fairness and equality. The Republicans supposedly oppose all that, which, of course, is bogus and ridiculous, but that’s the kind of success the myth makers have had.

But reality is an entirely different thing, and particularly in this election result last night or yesterday. The reality is that the American people don’t want any more of what they’ve had, what we’ve had for the past six years. Now, the media has a responsibility, and that is to make you think something else. The media’s responsibility today and going forward is to tell you that this election was about anything but the truth. And this election was about a total rejection of liberalism, policies, and governance. It was a total rejection of Barack Obama and Obamaism. The media, however, will continue to do everything they can to persuade you it was about something else entirely.

Let me give you an example. I’m holding here in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers a piece from today’s New York Times written by Jeremy W. Peters and Carl Hulse. “RepublicansÂ’ First Step Was to Handle Extremists in Party.” The premise of this story is the Republican victory depended entirely on the Republican establishment silencing and eliminating any Tea Party candidates. Cory Gardner and Joni Ernst not included, and some others.

“It was late spring, and Republican leaders knew that if they wanted to win the Senate, they needed to crush the enemy: not Democrats, but the rebels within their own party.And Chris McDaniel, a Senate candidate from Mississippi who had a history of making sexist and racially insensitive remarks, was a problem.”

Notice Nancy Pelosi is never an extremist. Harry Reid is never an extremist. Dick Durbin, never an extremist. No, no, no. Hillary Clinton, never. No, no. The only extremists are in the Tea Party, in the Republican Party, and the Republican Party is well aware. And the only way the Republican Party can win is to kill off the Tea Party, as epitomized by Chris McDaniel.

“Candidates like Scott Brown, running for the Senate in New Hampshire, called the National Republican Senatorial Committee to complain that if Mr. McDaniel was not stopped, he could drag the whole party down.” This would be Scott Brown who lost again in a race for the Senate, this time in New Hampshire, to an absolutely corrupt woman by the name of Jeanne Shaheen who we have learned worked hand in hand with Lois Lerner to target the Tea Party at the IRS.

Jeanne Shaheen was one of the US senators, along with Al Franken and others, encouraging the IRS to deny tax-exempt status to Tea Party fundraiser groups. We couldn’t mention that, of course; that would be partisan.

“In June, the party establishment — just barely — vanquished Mr. McDaniel, reaching a turning point in their dogged campaign to purge the party of extremists and regain power in the Senate.” And again, it’s funny, ladies and gentlemen, how we never hear of any extremists in the Democrat Party. We only hear of extremists in the Republican Party, acknowledged by other Republicans! We only hear of extremists as named by other Republicans.

We don’t hear of one Democrat, even after they have just received another historic shellacking. But nobody ever dares suggest the Democrats need to dial back some of their extremists. No, no. Harry Reid can go make fools of himself all day long, and it’s mainstream. And Pelosi and Debbie “Blabbermouth” Schultz, who define radical extremist kook cases, are free to say and do whatever they want, and they’re considered brilliant strategists.

Back to the New York Times piece: “RepublicansÂ’ impressive showing Tuesday night … was the result of methodical plotting, careful candidate vetting and abundant preparation to ensure that the partyÂ’s candidates would avoid repeating the same devastating mistakes that cost them dearly in 2010 and 2012.” Because, you see, only conservative extremists make mistakes.

If only conservative extremists make mistakes, then Joe Biden must be the biggest conservative out there because he’s one of the biggest extreme radical dummkopfs that we have. But when he does it, it’s just old Joe, you know, that’s just Joe. Making fun of the Indians at 7-Eleven, that’s just old Joe. There’s not a racist bone in old Joe’s body. “In interviews, more than two dozen lawmakers and strategists described the meticulous efforts.”

Why in the world are Republican establishment wizards of smarts going off to the New York Times to explain their brilliant strategy of limiting “extremists” in their own party? Why aren’t the wizards of smart in the Republican Party going to the New York Times and describing the extremists in the Democrat Party and explaining to the New YorkTimes why the Democrats just lost?

Instead of explaining, “Yeah, you know why we won? Because we kept people like Todd Akin out, we kept people like Chris McDaniel out, and we kept people like Sharron Angle out. We got rid of the wackos. We got rid of the extremists! We shut the Tea Party up. That’s why we won.” And you know what it means, New York Times? Republican leaders in this story are telling the New York Times that the meaning of the election is: The voters want us to work together to solve problems.

“Party leaders managed to elbow aside insurgents like Mr. McDaniel and Liz Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, who had planned to challenge Senator Mike Enzi of Wyoming on the grounds that he was insufficiently conservative.” Liz Cheney is a dangerous extremist, in the New York Times piece. Liz Cheney is a dangerous extremist, as called out by Republican leaders in this piece?

But Nancy Pelosi isn’t, and Harry Reid isn’t, and never has been? And Debbie “Blabbermouth” Schultz is not an extremist? Dick Durbin’s not an extremist? “But in the end,” says the New York Times proudly. “In the end, the disciplined approach by the Republicans worked. No Republican imploded with the kind of fatal campaign gaffe that crushed the party’s hopes in the last two elections.

“Every establishment candidate prevailed in the primaries. Republicans credited this to their rigorous training program. The fake trackers would even surprise candidates at the curb outside the airport when they flew into Washington to meet with National Republican Senatorial Committee officials…” Do you know this happened? Let me explain. Can I tell you what happened here?

All these potential candidates are flown to Washington to meet the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee. They come in together on flights, and they got their bags, and they’re out on the curb waiting to get in a car, and a bunch of Republican leaders pretending to be reporters come up to ’em with microphones and cameras and start shouting questions to them about abortion and rape.

It was a training exercise to see if they could discover that any of them were Todd Akin or would say something stupid, or if any of them were Chris McDaniel and would say something extreme. Fake reporters — Republicans — would come up to these newly arrived, chosen candidates and ask ’em, “So tell me, rape’s okay, right? You think rape, in some cases, it’s a natural part of existence? If somebody gets pregnant from rape, it’s okay, right, right?”

These arriving candidates think it’s the media asking them this, and it turns out it’s just a training exercise. But this was how thorough the Republican mainstream establishment was in ferreting out the potential danger in candidates who would say radically stupid stuff, and this is why they won, because of the brilliance of the Republican strategists who figured out how to keep the Tea Party from being involved. That’s the media’s job this week.

The media’s job this week is to give everybody a totally wrong-headed, incorrect reason why the Republican victory took place, and it wasn’t because they kept out the Tea Party, and it wasn’t this or that. It doesn’t matter what the Republicans stood for. They were the other guys, and the American people want these Democrats stopped. The Republicans were not elected because they kept the Tea Party out.

They weren’t elected because they want people to work together. They weren’t elected because of compromise. They weren’t elected because they weren’t conservative, ’cause they didn’t have any idenity. They weren’t elected… Nobody knew what the Republicans were on a national basis. I’m gonna say this over and over again because the Republicans stood mute. They didn’t tell anybody anything about themselves.

They didn’t articulate one policy. Individual candidates did, but the national Republican Party had no identity. Purposely! So they’ve won, and now they’re telling themselves in the New York Times: The reason is the right people kept the right candidates in and kept the Tea Party out of it. There weren’t any embarrassing statements that we had to defend that limited our fundraising, and that’s why we won.

You really think that people went to the polls yesterday, and as they’re marking their ballots or pulling the levers or whatever, do you think people are actually saying, “You know what? I’m gonna vote for Republicans this time because I don’t remember any stupid things some guy in Missouri said. Yeah! Yep! Yep! That’s it. Vote Republican. I don’t remember anything.” This was not on their minds.

They walked into the polling place, they walked up to the ballot box, and the only thought on their minds was: “This is our only chance as stopping what is happening to our country,” and they weren’t thinking about rape, and they weren’t thinking about War on Women, and they weren’t thinking about climate change. They weren’t thinking about anything else. They were thinking about stopping what is happening to our country, and that means stopping the people who are causing it.

That happens to be Barack Obama and the Democrats.

And that’s all this election was about.